WOODFORD Green with Essex Ladies athlete Tara Bird has been tipped as a star of the future by her mentor and double Olympic gold medalist Dame Kelly Holmes.

The 21-year-old runner is one of the brightest prospects in the country and is the luminary of the ‘On Camp with Kelly’ programme, which helps unearth rough diamonds and seeks to transform them into the polished gems of Great British athletics.

Bird has already made giant strides in the sport, and was recently called up as a member of Britain’s 4x400m squad in the European Indoor Champion-ships in Athens, with her selection based on one impressive performance over that distance this season.

She is already ranked inside the country’s top five for her favoured event, the 800m, while she is number six in the national standings for the 400m.

Holmes is in no doubt that a glittering future awaits the youngster in years to come, and insisted that she would be challenging for a place in Team GB for the Games in London in 2012.

“Tara is a talented athlete so is definitely in the running to be a part of Team GB for London 2012,” said Holmes, who became the first British woman to win two Olympic golds after her triumphs in the 800m and 1500m in Athens.

She added: “Tara has the ability and the support team around her to compete at the highest level and I believe she can get there.”

Holmes stopped short of predicting an Olympic gold for Bird to match her own, but she remained confident that the youngster would one day make her mark on the planet’s greatest sporting stage.

“To win an Olympic gold so many different factors have to come together on the day, so it’s hard to predict that, but I certainly believe she has the potential to compete at the Olympics, if not in 2012, in 2016.”